


sugar, spice, and chocolate pretzels

by peachiegirlie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crushes, First Kiss, Fluff, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Getting Together, High School, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26816437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachiegirlie/pseuds/peachiegirlie
Summary: Karasuno Volleyball Club was known for three things:1. That one time a few years back when they went to Nationals and actually did pretty okay2. Their "third year" teammate who's actually a gang member who dropped out of high school after getting arrested, and threatened to beat up the principal if they didn't let him re-enrol to get his diploma3. The disgusting amount of pining going on between their captain and vice-captainOr: 3 Foods to Fall in Love
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 12
Kudos: 107
Collections: DaiSugaWeek2020





	sugar, spice, and chocolate pretzels

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by DaiSuga Week 2020 Day 4 prompt - salty, sweet, spicy 
> 
> DaiSuga babyyyy! (but make it super oblivious pining absolute disaster gays canon daisuga - with FOOD)

Karasuno's Baking and Confectionary Club was known for three things:

1\. Their neon orange aprons and matching visors they wore whenever they were selling their food which told you that you had to get to the cafeteria _now_ or you'd miss out on the cupcake of a lifetime  
2\. Club President Haruka's very intense and very _public_ confrontation with her cheating boyfriend at their first bake sale of the year  
3\. Their Valentine's Day extravaganza

Standing at the battered till, watching hapless boyfriends groan and sweat and panic while crowds of tittering girls peered over each other's shoulders and held buttery biscuits decorated painstakingly in several hues of bright red and garish pink up to their friends' mouths, Yua couldn't find it in herself to see the appeal.

The appeal of the _food_ \- yes. Their club made the best cakes and treats you could ever eat and she knew that wasn't a biased opinion.

The appeal of the _day_ \- no. Everyone looked vaguely panicked as they tried to decipher what selection of goods might increase whatever chance they had at securing the romance of their rose-coloured high school dreams. Yua was of the firm opinion that Valentine's Day was nothing but a commercial hoax and if your crush didn't like you any other miserable day of the year, Valentine's Day wasn't going to magically fix that problem.

But most people loved a bit of that romantic idealism with a touch of sugary indulgence and so, regardless of her stance on the completely arbitrary nature of the event, the baking club often made more than five times as much money on Valentine's Day as they did any other weekly bake sale.

There was a large spread of goods this year, branching out from the traditional cookies, cakes, cupcakes and more cakes to include some more adventurous sells that Yua had been itching to try out, namely: her chocolate dipped salty pretzels.

They weren't selling very well.

Which was - _fine_. It was fine! Some great things just went under appreciated by the general public, didn't mean they were any less great.  
(like - the jasmine scented hand soap in the school bathrooms that her friends always complained dried their hands out, or the set of _perfect_ legs on the tennis club vice-captain who everybody hated because of that one time he set a whole bunch of frogs loose in the gym, or her _chocolate covered pretzels_ )

They were great! They just evidently weren't what Karasuno High School wanted on Valentine's Day.

That didn't stop her from immediately answering, "Those chocolate pretzels!" when Sawamura from Class 4 ambled up with a sheepish grin and a hand nervously turning over what looks like a small bucket's worth of coins, asking lowly, "Recommendations from the chef?"

(it was said with the same awkward joviality that managed to be both endearingly dorky and just plain dorky that had Yua harbouring a not insubstantial crush for the better part of her first semester of first year before she saw the soccer team captain coming out of the change rooms with his hair still wet and decided it was time to move on)

He glanced over at the still high pile of pretzels that had been slowly migrating closer and closer towards the till in - admittedly, vain - hopes of attracting more attention, mouth forming a small 'o' before he looked back at her with a cocked eyebrow.

She merely smiled back, making sure to add just a little bit more teeth than necessary as she launched into her prepared spiel about the wonders of pretzels as a dessert food. "They're delicious - the perfect mix of salty savoury and -"

"Daichi!" A pale, slender hand shot out from the air to clamp down on Sawamura's broad shoulder. The smiling, mole dotted face of Sugawara followed closely behind, peering over Sawamura's frame to send a blinding grin her way. "What're you getting? You didn't tell me you were buying from the _Valentine's_ bake sale this year," he said with a theatrical wiggle of his eyebrows and conspiratorial wink behind him at the hulking figure of Azumane, who was approaching the bake stall with wide eyes that darted about across the mass of students already gathered there as if he was searching for a hole in a steel wall.

Sawamura sighed exasperatedly, though Yua took careful note of the flush of his cheeks, lifting Sugawara's hand off his shoulder with a pointed glare. "Do you want anything or not?"

Sugawara's eyes lit up. "You can just get two of what you're having, unless-" he turned back to Azumane, who was looking queasier and queasier as he watched a spot-faced, sweating first year student breathlessly ask one of Yua's junior clubmates what flavours Ms Ikeda from the library preferred. Sugawara merely jerked his head towards the spread on the tables, eyebrows raised, to which Azumane shook his head quickly.

"Okay," Sugawara said with a small clap of his hands, turning back to Yua who had watched the exchange with an amused quirk to her lips, "two of whatever Daichi picked out, please."

"Two chocolate covered pretzels, coming up!" Yua yelled gleefully, resisting the urge to fist pump or do something equally embarrassing, like weep, after finally managing to sell some of her pretzels.

She could hear Sugawara laughing as she ducked under the table to grab two paper bags and a handful of napkins.

"What in the world is a chocolate covered pretzel, Daichi?"

"I'd imagine it's exactly what it sounds like. Pretzel. Covered in chocolate."

"Well, I hope it tastes nice."

Yua popped back above the table in time to be met with another dazzling Sugawara smile. "Ah, but of course it'll taste nice, if Chef Yamamoto Yua made it!"

"I can't give you a discount for flattery, Sugawara," she retorted, though she had to fight to hold down a laugh in the face of his dramatically wounded expression as she held out the bagged pretzels. "300 yen, please. If you add a special Valentine's message cookie, it's only 40 yen extra."

"No thanks," Sawamura muttered quickly as he fumbled with his handful of coins, only managing to avoid dropping them all over the floor when Yua and Sugawara both reached out to scoop up the correct amount and the leftover change that was sliding precariously through Sawamura's fingertips, respectively.

All three boys regarded the bags suspiciously, peering into them and sniffing delicately as if a chocolate covered pretzel was somehow threatening.

"Try it!" Yua shrieked, both Azumane and Sugawara jumping slightly while Sawamura just flashed her an apologetic grin. She watched with glee as the two boys bit carefully into the pretzels. "How is it? Is the texture okay?

"Chewy," Sugawara said thoughtfully as he tore off another bite with a sharp wrench of his teeth.

Yua rolled her eyes. "It's supposed to be chewy," she sighed. "Sawamura - thoughts?"

Sawamura looked up, pausing mid chew with wide eyes. "Um....it's-"

"Really chewy?" Sugawara supplied with a smile, grinning sheepishly at Yua's loud huff.

"Whatever," Yua said with a flap of her hand all the while fighting to keep her own lips from quirking upwards at Sugawara's antics and Sawamura's adorably confused face as he obviously tried to sort out what was happening in his mouth with the _saltysweetchewy_ combination. "Don't choke on them or anything. And if anyone asks, you say they're delicious, okay? Not chewy."

Sugawara agreed jovially, loudly proclaiming how _scrumptious_ and _uniquely textured_ her pretzels were, with Azumane looking on and growing more and more obviously torn between embarrassment and fond exasperation by the second while Sawamura stood by and-

And stared at Sugawara with the most amazingly adoring expression Yua had ever seen, looking like something straight out of her Valentine's Day nightmares, and it seemed she wasn't the only one to have noticed.

Sugawara cut off his grandiose praise of Yua's pretzels with a wrinkle of his nose, eyes narrowed in Sawamura's direction. "What? Why're you looking at me like-"

Sawamura startled, shaking his head softly as if to shake off whatever spell Sugawara had put him under. "It's nothing, you just- here-"

Yua watched in amused disbelief as Sawamura reached out and placed a single, large hand gently on the curve of Sugawara's jaw before swiping his thumb over the corner of Sugawara's pink lips, open softly in shock. The touch seemed to linger, Sawamura rubbing carefully over Sugawara's skin with his own wide eyed expression of awe on his face.

Azumane looked nervously between them and Yua, smiling weakly as she raised her eyebrows pointedly at the pair, who were still standing stock still in front of the register looking like they'd come straight from the cover of a particularly tender romance novel.

Suddenly, all of the tension in the room seemed to snap and Sawamura snatched his hand back to his side. Sugawara continued to gape.

"Sorry, you had- you had a salt flake stuck there," Sawamura murmured, face turning steadily redder as he seemed to realise he'd just caressed Sugawara's face. In what might have been a flustered bid to do something, _anything with his hands_ that wasn't cradle Sugawara's face tenderly in his palm, Sawamura ducked his head to lick at the pad of his thumb.

Which had been on Sugawara's mouth.

Yua watched with rapt amusement as Sugawara's eyes widened impossibly further, tracking the movement as Sawamura's pink tongue darted out to move across his calloused skin. Sawamura lifted his head, face bright red as he seemed to realise exactly what he was doing, his thumb detaching from his lips with an audible pop.

"Sugawara-senpai!" A faceless voice cut through the clamouring of the lunch crowd and the heated tension of their odd little group at the register, all three boys swivelling round to search for the source. A shock of red hair weaved through the lunch tables and Sawamura groaned as the boy made his way towards them, almost screeching audibly as he stopped in front of the stall.

"Sugawara-senpai," the short red-headed boy said breathlessly, sounding as if he'd come running from outside, "a-about the key you leant to me and Kageyama..."

There was an awkward beat of silence where Sugawara seemed to be staring at the boy's face but not be hearing anything he was saying, neck, ears and cheeks still bright red. And then-

"Let's go," Sugawara laughed brightly, though Yua could have sworn it was a little rougher than usual, stuffing the rest of his pretzel back into the paper bag and handing it to Azumane as he threw an arm around the shorter boy's shoulders, "you can tell us exactly what you did with the key while we go ask Mr Takeda for the spare."

"Thanks for the, uh- the pretzels!" Azumane blurted out as the boys turned away, Sawamura hovering close behind Sugawara's back as they seemed to take turns teasing and ribbing the young boy between them whose neck was rapidly turning the same colour as his hair.

Yua waved them off, watching the group walk away with a satisfied grin.

There hadn't been anything on Sugawara's face.

...

Karasuno's Swim Club was known for three things:

1\. The club rule about regular waxing of all body hair - _all body hair_  
2\. The fact that Karasuno didn't actually have a pool  
3\. The team combined ate enough food to comfortably feed the rest of the student body for at least a year

Kenta was vaguely aware that the fact that his lunch consisted of two, or even sometimes three, bentos and was regularly supplemented by various vending machine snacks and drinks wasn't actually as much of an achievement as his clubmates made it out to be whenever they smugly compared macronutrient intake at lunch.

However, his Herculean eat habits _did_ mean he had extensive, reliable knowledge on the contents and workings of every single vending machine on school grounds, and most of the public ones within a 2km radius.

Which is how he knew that while the vending machine outside the volleyball gym had absolutely abysmal snacks (Sesame snaps? Really?), the drink selection was unparalleled.

Flavoured milk, both hot and cold, over six different types of juice, ready made Americano, almost every single brightly coloured soft drink you could imagine and - as of yesterday - cold milk tea...in _three_ flavours!

Yesterday, his first trialled flavour of this new vending machine milk tea had been, of course, the classic Royal Milk Tea flavour. It had been surprisingly nice, and was perfectly refreshing after the dry conditioning session the Coach had scheduled for them. The can it came in was bright blue, with small, golden flowers splattered across the label and big, curly lettering for the company name - an overall attractive packaging design.

Kenta counted that trial as a success.

The question remained, however, if the other two flavours could hold their own. Realistically, anyone could make Royal Milk Tea - even his older sister had managed to do a half decent job that one summer she'd become obsessed with YouTube videos that offered _home cooking hacks for the trendiest foods!!!!_

Which was why Kenta found himself making his way towards the vending machine outside the volleyball gym after school, mulling over his choice between Thai Milk Tea (another classic, surprisingly pretty red design, but with potential for just a bit too much sugar) or the slightly more unique Taro Milk Tea (thicker texture, usually pretty savoury, had a really cool purple tin). He considered yesterday, when he'd seen a group of the volleyball kids also eager to try out the new flavours, remembering the way one of the taller, dark haired first-years had guzzled down almost three of the red tinned Thai Milk Tea flavours while the others had given their own pleasantly surprised commentary on the sweet flavour with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

So - he could probably safely assume the Thai Milk Tea was good. Should he try the Taro, then? He hadn't heard anyone's opinion on the Taro flavour though - did he want to risk trying a flavour he wasn't sure was even good and ruining his milk tea experience on only the second trial? Surely it would be better to solidly cement two flavours are successful straight away, rather than trying the Taro then not liking it and potentially killing all his remaining enthusiasm to try the last flavour.

(he was aware he may have been taking this too seriously.)

With that reasoning in mind, he skipped around the block of lockers beside the gym, chanting "thai milk tea, thai milk tea," softly under his breath, only to barrel straight into someone's solid back, bounce right off and land ungracefully in the dusty dirt. On his ass.

"Hinata," a bright voice rang out, barely holding back laughter, "this is the second time-oh, you're not- Daichi, pick him up!" A pair of warm, broad hands clamped down on his shoulders, hauling him to his feet in a single smooth motion and then Kenta was staring straight into the face of Karasuno's Volleyball Captain.

"Sa-Sawamura-senpai!" he stuttered. "E-excuse me!"

"Ah, it's alright, um..." Sawamura-senpai trailed off sheepishly, glancing quickly at the boy next to him ( _Sugawara-senpai_ , Kenta realised with a start), who hissed _Nakamura Kenta_ , "it's alright, Nakamura-san. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine!" Kenta hurried to reply, a little stunned that a third-year like Sugawara-senpai had known his name. He only realised he was staring when both the boys gave him awkwardly confused smiles, heads tilted slightly to the side in perfect sync. "Oh, um...I'm just uh, getting a drink," he said, flapping a hand awkwardly in the direction of the vending machine in front of them.

"You can get yours first, we're still deciding," Sawamura-senpai offered warmly.

"No!" Kenta blurted out. He smiled sheepishly at their startled faces. "No, it's fine, you two go ahead," he said, gesturing again to the machine. Still looking quietly confused, the two boys turned back to inspect the list of food and drinks with murmurs of thanks and started up quiet chatter of what seemed to be a resuming of an argument.

"Daichi, I'm not letting you buy _water_ from a vending machine, get a real drink."

"How is water not a real drink?"

"Get banana milk! Or orange juice! They added milk tea recently, I think the red one's that Thai flavour you always get."

".....No, I'm fine - really, I don't want anything, now hurry and get yours, that poor kid's still waiting."

Kenta quickly pulled his phone out, suddenly feeling very awkward, and pulled up a new message to his older sister.

_guess who i *literally* just ran into_

**chris hemsworth**

_no wth_

**:(( why u txt me about it then**

_shut up. u know the volleyball captain?_

**yes!!! haha u ran into him? where even r u?**

_outside the vball gym. i ran into his back and fell on my ass orz_

**ur so lucky. i heard hanako tried to orchestrate smthn like that while they were cleaning n he used the handle of his broom to prop her up lol**

_it was soo embarrassing tho. n now we're all just standing at the vending machine tgther its awkward_

**all?**

_the vice caps here as well_

**sugawara??? cuttee www**

Kenta frowned down at the last message, though he didn't have time to puzzle over what his sister meant before there were two grinning faces in front of him.

"All yours," Sugawara-senpai said cheerfully, rolling a red tin of Thai Milk Tea between his hands.

"Sorry about the wait," Sawamura-senpai added.

"No, it's fine," he replied quickly. His eyebrows furrowed as he took in Sawamura-senpai's empty hands. "Aren't you getting anything, Sawamura-senpai?"

The captain's expression faltered for a bit, and Kenta's cheeks quickly heated up in the short ensuring silence, before Sawamura-senpai pulled his features into his usual reassuring smile. "No, no, I try and stick with water most days." Beside him, Sugawara-senpai pulled a face, sticking his tongue out at the side of his friend's head and Kenta had to quickly cover his mouth in a terribly faked cough to mask the unexpected snort of laughter that bubbled up.

"Bye, Nakamura-san!" Sugawara-senpai trilled as he grabbed a very concerned looking Sawamura-senpai by the elbow and turned him around. Kenta shook his head, smiling quietly as the pair lingered just a few steps away from the vending machine as Sugawara-senpai passed a handful of change over to the other boy, who huffed and grumbled something too low for Kenta to hear, but begrudgingly unzipped a small side pocket on Sugawara-senpai's bag and stashed the loose coins in there nonetheless.

Kenta was still rooting around in his own wallet for the exact amount he needed for the milk tea when he heard the sharp crack of a can being opened. He craned his head as Sugawara-senpai lifted the red can to his lips, watching with eager curiosity for the older boy's reaction-

"Eugh," Sugawara-senpai grimaced emphatically, "it's _sooo_ sweet! I don't think I can drink this - here, Daichi, you finish it."

Sawamura-senpai fumbled with the small red can that came smacking into his chest, swearing softly to which his companion just laughed. He took a long sip, smacking his lips as he swallowed. "Huh. That really is just what I needed after that training session," he sighed, eyes closed and missing the soft smile that got sent his way. "I swear, that idiot duo are gonna have me prematurely balding, you tell them one thing and then they decide..."

The voices and answering laughter trailed off as the pair walked away, and Kenta's hand finally closed around that last 50 yen coin he needed. He paused, hand mid-air as he reached out to press the machine's buttons, something niggling at the inside of his skull about the conversation he'd just overheard.

Kenta frowned as he looked back over his shoulder at the retreating duo, running through his limited interactions with the volleyball club to make sure he wasn't mistaking Sugawara-senpai for someone else. No - that silver hair and soothing voice couldn't have been anyone else. Plus, it was just common knowledge that the current captain and vice-captain of the volleyball team were practically attached at the hip, and that had definitely been Sawamura Daichi.

Maybe he had been mistaken yesterday, when he could have sworn he saw Sugawara-senpai enthusiastically drinking a bright red can of milk tea.

...

Karasuno's Senior Class Council was known for three things:

1\. They had successfully petitioned to reintroduce a Three Legged Race to the Sports Day events  
2\. Secretary Izumi Ichika's dad was the heir to a huge conglomerate - which one exactly was still unknown to the school population - that put her family in the top 10 wealthiest families in the country  
3\. Their Senior Games Day was lining up to be the most chaotic one to date

Senior Games Day wasn't about winning anything, or teamwork, or making sure you had made a name for yourself at your high school.

Senior Games Day was about seeing how much fun you could physically have within the eight hour constraints that constituted a school day on your last day of school before the exam period set in and effectively cut you off from everything that existed outside the pages of your textbooks.

Last year, the revelry had reached _throwing handfuls of DIY slime at each other_ levels of fun.

And sure, Vice-President Sawamura Chiaki could see the appeal in a cohort-wide slime fight. But she also knew a lot of the students had spent serious time and money on perfecting their Games Day costumes, and she also knew for a fact that she wouldn't appreciate anyone throwing any sort of substance on her carefully created Alice in Wonderland outfit. (her boyfriend had _not_ been happy that his two choices for a matching outfit were a fat cat or wearing a patchwork suit and eye-watering amounts of eyeshadow plus a wig, and ended up choosing to go as a Ninja Turtle with his clubmates)

So, slime fight was out.

They needed a replacement activity - something that would entertain the masses with minimal mess. And, really, Chiaki didn't mean to be brag but she was nothing if not creative and also a glutton for public embarrassment of other's, which was how Choco-Spice-Mystery-Torture Roulette (Choc Roulette for short) was born.

"The rules are simple!" Chiaki yelled into the megaphone out into the grinning crowd of third-years, standing atop the small stage in the volleyball gym which they'd been relegated to for fear of another slime fest messing up the floors of the assembly hall. "Each class will send two representatives up to the stage, where one person will be feeding the other a delicious selection of hand-made chocolates - thank you Haruka and Yua from the Baking Club for making these _special_ treats!"

She paused briefly, waiting for the applause to die down as Yua blew loud, exaggerated kisses into the cheering crowd, her usual toothy smile looking more than a little unhinged with her killer clown makeup and fake-blood splattered skin, while Haruka gave a slightly embarrassed mock bow, restricted by the black gown-type garment that went over head to complete her absurd No-Face costume.

"But! You better choose your challengers wisely because while this also a test of speed...it is also a test of _trust_ , because both participants will be blindfolded!" Chiaki intoned dramatically, pulling out a pair of blindfolds from her pocket with a flourish. The students tittered excitedly, some already pointing and shouting out suggestions for pairings.

"Only the person feeding the other will be able to use their hands - so no touching or helping if you're the one being fed! First pair to eat the whole box wins class vouchers for free melon or curry buns from the corner store." Chiaki paused, smirking slightly and delighting in the excited whispers that erupted in the crowd. "It won't be as easy as you think."

She caught Yua's eye in the crowd, grinning as the other girl shot her a wink.

"Okay, you have five minutes to send up a pair!" Chiaki called out and the room erupted into shouts and squeals and laughter.

Most classes chose their representative pair relatively easy, sticking to couples who'd been together the longest or their class presidents and vice-presidents. Some classes, on the other hand, seemed to be struggling.

Class 2 had Nakamura Rina engaged in a passive-aggressive stare down with Fujimaki Yukiko over which of the two would participate with their boyfriends, both the boys standing uncomfortably red-faced to the side while the other class members circled awkwardly. Class 4 had recently been the scene of a disastrous breakup between a couple that had been dating since middle school only a few days ago (apparently the girlfriend had neglected to tell her boyfriend she was applying for universities in _Australia_ and he had only applied to universities in Miyagi Prefecture since he had wanted to _be near her_ after they graduated - it sounded horrific), so the class was flailing about without their usual representative couple.

As the timer ticked closer and closer to five minutes, most of the classes had managed to send up their representative pairs - Nakamura Rina flouncing smugly onto the stage with her ~~opponent~~ classmate glowering from below - until the only class left to decide was Class 4.

They looked exceptionally strange all standing together, all of them having gone in a coordinated sort of costume where the girls and boys swapped their uniforms, with varying degrees of success in terms of appropriate sizing (a lot of the girls were absolutely swamped in fabric) and modesty (a lot of the boys spent most of the day adjusting their skirts). Chiaki had never seen so many scandalously bare, hairy legs before, and agreed that, for all their faults and hassles, perhaps school uniforms existed for a reason.

With only thirty seconds left to enter Choc Roulette and with almost all of the chairs at the table atop the stage filling up with various couples and class presidents, Class 4 managed to literally shove their representative pair on stage just in time, to the accompaniment of many wolf-whistles and giggles throughout the audience.

Sawamura Daichi and Sugawara Koushi, both in impossibly stretched white button downs and tight, pleated skirts, though with virtue firmly intact by the way of some black stockings. A pair almost an inseparable as the former together-since-middle-school couple. Or perhaps, in light of the traumatic breakup, _more_ inseparable.

Chiaki raised her eyebrows at her cousin Daichi, jerking her chin towards Sugawara taking a seat beside him. Daichi had always laughed and bluffed his way through all of the auntie's prodding of _any nice girls, anyone you have your eye on, any lucky person you're seeing_ at each family dinner, although Chiaki, with a first hand witness of Daichi's disgustingly sappy puppy eyes following Sugawara's every move, had privately disagreed with his frequent and vehement protests.

Daichi just rolled his eyes back at her, and ignored her tongue poke in retaliation, dropping into the seat beside Sugawara, and, after a moment of thought and a loud wolf whistle from Michimiya, closed his legs together tightly.

Shaking her head with a small smile, Chiaki picked up the megaphone once more, waiting until all of the couples had placed their blindfolds on and had a box of specially made chocolates in front of them, before clearing her throat loudly.

"Remember, you need to finish and swallow all of the contents of that box to win." She turned to the audience, wiggling her eyebrows to elicit a few cheers. "Okay! Ready, set...Go!"

It was absolute chaos from the start.

Some couples decided that hard and fast was the way to go, just smashing chocolate against any part of the other person's face they could find. Some of the boyfriends, in particular, seemed to be enjoying this method of smushing chocolates into their girlfriend's cheeks, and the crowd in the gym laughed along as the recipients of the handfuls of chocolate to the face sputtered indignantly. "They need to eat them, not wear them!" Chiaki shrieked into the megaphone.

Other teams had chosen precision and steady rhythm (and actually getting chocolate into the other person's mouth) over hopeful shoving. There were lots of timidly searching hands and awkwardly bitten fingertips, as well as red-tipped ears and shyly trembling lips, made even more awkward with the couples who weren't actual couples, like the Class President and Vice-President pair from Class 1 who were both bright pink from their ears all the way down their necks.

Chiaki smirked to herself, revelling in the combination of amusement and embarrassment mingling thickly in the air as the competitors soldiered on with varying degrees of success. There were shouted words of encouragement and good old fashion jeers from the audience, obviously thoroughly enjoying the chaos on stage. But that wasn't what Chiaki was waiting keenly for, she was waiting for that first bite into a-

"Oh my-WHAT THE HELL-!" The contestant's shrill outburst startled some of the audience into silence, but what really get's everyone's attention was the hacking, garbled coughing that followed quickly. Soon enough, a second contestant exclaimed loudly, shrieking about-

"Wha- is this - _oh my God_ \- why is it so SPICY?!"

Chiaki couldn't help but grin as a fresh round of laughter pealed through the gym and every single one of the contestants on stage froze comically in time. Chiaki smiled gleefully into the megaphone. "Forgot to mention - half of your chocolates are filled with, not chocolate fudge, but Karasuno Confectionary Club's very own hell-fire shichimi togarashi, mixed with a traditional Korean gochujang - rated at a beautiful 70 on the heat scale! This does not change the rules - you need to eat the whole box. Enjoy!"

The next five minutes of carnage were, in Chiaki's humble opinion, the biggest success of her life to date.

Forget that perfect score on her English mock exam.

Forget qualifying for States in that language computing competition.

Forget winning the door prize at her mum's library club Christmas party.

Watching her classmates wheeze and muddle their way through choking down half a box of violently spicy chocolates - that was a pure rush of unbridled glee and she cherished every moment of it.

Even Daichi and Sugawara seemed to be struggling. Although they'd started slow and sure, with Sugawara almost impatiently leaning forward to take the chocolate right out of Daichi's fingers almost as though he could picture exactly where Daichi's steady hand would be, the introduction of the spiced chocolates proved to be a challenge.

It seemed, despite his well known affinity for spice, even Sugawara had found his limit in a small box of chilli chocolates.

His neck was entirely flushed painful red though his face was somehow bloodlessly pale and growing steadily more and more shiny with swelling beads of sweat. Chiaki tried hard not to laugh as Sugawara's mouth opened in a silent, pained gasp, at odds with the swearing and sputtering of the other's forcing more and more of the spiced chocolate into their mouths. Daichi looked terribly conflicted - obviously trying to decide between feeding Sugawara more of the potentially treacherous contents of the chocolate box to win, or to stop altogether and give his partner a (much needed) reprieve.

If anything, the introduction of the mystery spicy treats only spurred the competition further, with many of the contestants eating faster and with less hesitation (though far more coughing and howling), likely to get through the box quicker - not to win anything - but to simply be done faster.

Sugawara was no exception and he leant forward with the same surety he'd had earlier and snatched the next mysterious chocolate right out of Daichi's wavering grasp, Chiaki laughing herself to tears at the stupidly stunned expression on Daichi's face, visible even with the blindfold, as Sugawara's mouth all but closed around his fingers.

_Holy hell. Daichi was **so** far gone._

Chiaki's amusement quickly turned to nose wrinkled disgust as she watched Daichi's neck turn bright red as Sugawara's next bite of chocolate involved a suspicious amount of tongue running flat along Daichi's knuckles before the chocolate was finally swallowed down. As close as her and Daichi were, there were certain things she just wouldn't want to touch.

(she now understood Daichi's outright loud 'lalalala'-ing whenever she started her moon-eyed poetic waxing about her own boyfriend's many and _varied_...assets)

Resolving to leave Daichi and Sugawara to...whatever was happening with Sugawara's tongue, Chiaki focussed on the other couples, watching intently for the first sign of any cheating or an empty chocolate box and to...well, to laugh at them as their faces shone with snot and sweat and tears.

There were at least three couples who were down to their last couple of chocolates, though their partner who was eating was definitely struggling with the heat.

"My nose is dripping, this is so emba-"

"I can't even feel my mouth-"

"I think I'm actually crying- _don't laugh at me!_ "

 _Ah, yes_ , Chiaki thought to herself satisfactorily, surveying the snivelling contestants on stage and the roaring audience, _Choco-Spice-Mystery-Torture Roulette was a brilliant idea._

The noise in the gym reached a deafening new height as both couple's from Class 1 and Class 5 yelled out to her that they were on their last chocolate. Overlapping chants of all four students' named rang out in a muddle of screams as the eating partners gulped and chewed and sweated and swore and swallowed-

"Finished!" Nakamura Rina shouted triumphantly, albeit sounding very pained, sticking her tongue out as Chiaki inspected to make sure everything had been eaten. Truthfully, probably about a good quarter of the chocolate had ended up on the girl's cheeks and neck as well as all over her boyfriend's hand, but...it was Senior Game's Day and the rest of the student's were waiting with bated breath to hear the verdict of-

"Class 2, we have our winners!" Chiaki announced to an outpouring of yelling, both celebratory and lamenting, and the rest of the competitors tore their blindfolds off, some sniping at their partners or shyly avoiding meeting eyes, but most of them were quickly preoccupied with shouting for water.

Sugawara was bent over with his hands clutching at his throat and Daichi rubbing his shoulder in small, warm circles, though the comforting gesture was undercut by his shaking guffaws.

"Seriously, I know you love her, but I'm gonna kill your cousin-" Chiaki couldn't help but huff out a laugh at the raw rasp of Sugawara's voice, and the serious delivery of his proclamation.

"I know, I know," Daichi replied, voice trembling with the effort of keeping it steady from laughter. It was in vain, however, when Sugawara looked up to see Daichi's wide grin and promptly smacked him pointedly in the chest.

Chiaki whipped around as someone called out Daichi's name and saw a water bottle flying through the air from the crowd from Azumane, the arc of black bottle swinging perfectly above the heads of the other students and up to the stage.

Daichi snatched the bottle neatly out of the air one-handed and proceeded to unscrew the cap with the other, holding it out to a staring Sugawara beside him. Though Daichi's face was nonchalant, the smug gleam in his eyes was bright enough for even Chiaki to see it from where she was standing up at the other end of the stage, and she rolled her eyes despite the small smile on her face.

Daichi promptly ruined any sort of dreamy image by fumbling the water bottle as soon as Sugawara gave it back to him to close the lid, spilling the remainder of it's content that Sugawara hadn't frantically guzzled down all over the front of his shirt. Sugawara's face opened up into a bright laugh, lost to Chiaki among the gaggle of other voices and giggles, though Daichi's own expression softened to gooey, mushy, twinkling-eyed depths Chiaki had never seen.

 _Eugh._ This was just too much _mush_ for her to handle. With one last shudder at the literal bubble of sickly sweet adoration surrounding Daichi and Sugawara, Chiaki turned her attention back to the other contestants and the sudden appearance of the 23 students from Class 2 all clamouring for their free meat-bun vouchers.

"Okay, _okay_!" Chiaki laughed, hands held up placatingly at the expectant faces in front of her. "Let me just make sure no one needs _medical attention_ or something and I'll get your vouchers for you."

Class 2's raucous cheers set off another round of yelling and screaming in the gym, Chiaki shaking her head in fond amusement as she started attending to the outraged competitors who seemed to be recovering quickly enough to start hurling accusations at her. It seemed she'd be buying copious amounts of milk tea as compensation and treatment for burning mouths for the rest of the day - a small price to pay for the privilege of seeing her classmates conquered and broken so completely by a box of seemingly innocuous chocolates.

The crowd in the gym, and even Chiaki herself, were so caught up in gawking and laughing at the various gagging, crying, sweating and sniffling competitors, or celebrating loudly and obnoxiously about free meat-buns, that the quick, impulsive kiss Daichi leant forward to plant on Sugawara's lips went entirely unnoticed.

Chiaki would later recall looking up from the carnage in front of her to see Sugawara with an expression of pale shock rather than the familiar red-faced outrage many of the other competitors were wearing, though it was rapidly morphing into a bright, unadulterated smile that matched Daichi's own nervous grin. And, even later than that, when Daichi turned up at her 18th birthday dinner with an arm wrapped tightly around the waist of an uncharacteristically shy Sugawara nervously clutching a bowl of homemade lemon glazed donut holes, Chiaki would slide her hand under the table to snatch up the 5000 yen note her brother petulantly held out to her, with a triumphant look of _told you so_ on her face.

It seemed Choco-Spice-Mystery-Torture Roulette had been a fantastic idea, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact - i had this 95% done by the time DaiSuga Week came round but that last 5% just could not get written. keep any eye out for a few other (very, very, VERY) belated fics from this week that also suffered the same 'almost finished, but not quite' fate. check out other creations from this week on [tumblr](https://daisugaweek2020.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/daisugaweek2020) :)
> 
> come chat with me on [tumblr](https://peachie-girlie.tumblr.com)!
> 
> also was it just my school that had the tradition of swapping uniforms on the last day?? that was the most comfortable day of my life, i have no idea why i wore the uniform dress when i could've been chilling in the shorts and the shirt instead rip.


End file.
